Expedition to the volcanoes of the Arctic seafloor : the AMORE Expedition headed for the so-called “Gakkel Ridge” where, on the floor of the Arctic Ocean, there is hot work afoot – for this ocean ridge is composed of active volcanoes

Abstract

Beginning: When Jules Verne made his imaginary journey of exploration to the centre of the earth through the vents in an Icelandic volcano over a hundred years ago, he assumed that all volcanoes are interlinked in a subterranean system. But even his imagination failed to visualise the world-wide system of submarine volcanoes that extends over a distance of over 60,000 kilometres and only breaks the surface of the ocean at Iceland. This mid-oceanic ridge, which spans the entire world ocean, has evolved along the boundaries between the tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust. Gakkel Ridge, in the central eastern Arctic Ocean is the northern most spur of the plate boundary between Eurasia and North America, and at the same time the most slowly opening ridge segment in the world, opening only a few millimetres each year